


Simply a man.

by CommanderGoo



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, Oneshot, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:07:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28927791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CommanderGoo/pseuds/CommanderGoo
Summary: Ganondorf, king of the Gerudo, a name lost to time, a monster underneath Hyrule.
Kudos: 16





	Simply a man.

OBJECTIVE: DESTROY

Ganondorf Dragmire was not a beast, far from it. He was simply a man. The only man of his people. 

His last name was the only thing his father gave him, and his mother gave him everything she had. He remembered how she watched him as he practiced his swordsmanship, her tired eyes. He remembered how she would threaten those who saw him with the dinky kitchen knives she stowed away by the fire pit in the center of their tent. He remembered how to herd goats, and how to make cheese. He remembered how to layer clothes so he wouldn’t get sunburn, but still stayed cool. He remembers tumbling down dunes, shaking the sand out of his hair, and climbing back up to do it again. He remembered the endless sea of sand, red desert flowers, ink-black nights. He remembered, on the rare nights his mother had the energy to stay awake past sunset, her worn hand against the backdrop of the stars, tracing the vague outlines of the legends in their midst - a boar, a rabbit, a dragon, a bird with sweeping, sparkling wings. Three of the brightest points, arranged equidistant from one another. A shining maiden who led them all across the sky.

  
OBJECTIVE: DESTROY

He remembered when the soldiers from the city came. They stood taller than his mother, towering over them both with their straight backs and long golden spears. His poor mother with her stooped shoulders and blunt kitchen knives was left with no choice. 

They had brought him to the terrible, fearsome chieftain he had been told so many times to never come into contact with. She looked very different from the image he had constructed of her - not some wicked witch or cruel tyrant, but simply a woman, draped in pretty fabric and softly clinking jewelry. He remembered her elegant features being stricken with horror at the sight of him, her spine straightening with prophecy. 

He remembered the smell of the new chambers which he called home, so far away from his goats, his tent, and his mother. He had gawked at the high ceilings and sweeping windows and wondered why anyone would need so much space. He remembered thinking, childishly, that he could even fit the imposing mares that the soldiers had rode to retrieve him in there. He remembered casting all the silken pillows off of his too-big bed, for he only needed the pillow he had brought with him. He remembered waking up the next day to be heralded as the new hero and king of the Gerudo, in front of a crowd of shocked citizens. Some gasped, some cried, others still looked away. He remembered not being able to see his mother in the crowd. He remembered how his mother taught him, above all, to love himself and everyone he met. He remembered how, from then on, he was never in one place for too long. He remembered being ferried from aristocrats’ tea rooms, to lofty estates in Hyrule field. He remembered the looks of the throne room guards as he passed them by. He remembered trying not to gawk at their strange, heavy clothes too long. He remembered being introduced to the King and Queen of Hyrule, how his knee ached from being pressed against the cold atrium floor for so long, their ceremonious pomp and grandeur all too much for his young self.

OBJECTIVE: DESTROY

He remembered the friends he made in the city, and in Hyrule Castle. He wanted to talk to the people in Castle Town, but could never muster the courage to try. He remembered how much difficulty he had with riding horses, and how his entourage had to discreetly arrange a carriage to bring him home. He remembered all of the scientists and engineers in and around Hyrule Castle that stared at him behind their masks as they worked, to protect their people from an evil he was not yet informed of. He remembered his sixth birthday, and how he finally saw his mother again. He remembered how much they cried, and how he told her that she should move to the city. He remembered how she turned him down, because the goats wouldn’t much care for stone under their hooves, and how he laughed but wanted to bawl. He remembered the endless days and nights of training, reading, studying, and promising to be a good leader. He remembered when the princess of Hyrule was born, and the week long carriage ride he took to go meet her, and the strange dread that crept over him when he saw her behind the veil covering her crib.

OBJECTIVE: DESTROY

He remembered seeing a Goron for the first time, and a Zora, and a Rito. He had heard of them plenty of times, but his mental image was very different to what was before him. He remembered how big the Zora queen was, and how the Rito chief eyed him with a strange ambivalence, and how the Goron chief greeted him with the biggest smile he had ever seen. He remembered crying because it scared him. He remembered being scolded and apologising. He remembered rehearsing the prayer for good luck and peace that he would have to say at Zelda’s first birthday. He remembered stuttering halfway through it anyways. He remembered the trip home, and how his advisor told him off for it. He remembered wanting to see his mother again. He remembered his seventh birthday, and how his mother told him she sold the goats and that she would move to the city, for him. He remembered asking if she sold his favorite goat, and how she looked away when she told him it had passed away half a year ago. He remembered helping his mother move in, to the horror of his advisors. He remembered the weird looks the little girls in Gerudo town would give him as he went about his business. He remembered one asking why he didn’t wear a shirt. He remembered being embarrassed enough to start draping himself in the chieftain’s finery for the first time. He remembered how different it felt from the clothes his mother used to make for him, the thick, richly-patterned layers heavy where his old clothes had been light.

  
OBJECTIVE: DESTROY

  
He remembered how long he spent in Hyrule castle’s library each time he visited, and how the young princess trailed him like his favorite goat used to do. He remembered her thirst for knowledge, and how often she would wander off to listen to the wisdom of the old castle poets. He remembered how much his skin itched when he stood by her for too long. He remembered how much he tried to ignore it. He remembered how badly he wanted a sister.

He remembered how his memories stewed together after that and formed a nostalgic sludge. 

He doesn’t remember when his shadow first started to whisper to him. He doesn’t remember when the curse first started to burn beneath his skin. He remembers telling no one, until the night it broke loose, racing into the dark sky over the city, a plume of black smoke that blotted out the stars before dissipating with a hiss. He remembered how he was told to never allow it to happen again. He remembered being instructed to only let it loose away from his, and other, people. He remembers feeling like some kind of dangerous beast, something to be penned and corralled, like a wild horse that would refuse to break, even to the strongest rider. 

He remembered the terrible shrine out in the desert he would be made to visit once a month to release a great deal of the awful magic. He remembered the oily film it left on the walls, how it blackened the pristine stonework, and how disgusting he felt afterwards. He remembered the sages from the springs of Lanayru that would come once a year to purify the shrine, and how much the holy incantations burned his skin- worse than the curse did.

OBJECTIVE: DESTROY

He remembered his mother’s passing when he was eighteen. He remembers her quiet funeral. He remembers being among the 5 attendants. He remembered passing some stonemasons in Castle Town, who whispered that he simply sprung from the ground, awaiting orders from a demon whose name was lost to time. He remembered weeping when he was alone for days. He remembered how much he loved her, how much she loved others. He remembered how much she loved her son. He remembered how sick he felt after. He remembered how violently the darkness churned within his veins. He remembered how much of the magic- malice, he called it, he poured out into the shrine that month. And the month after. And the month after that, until the walls wouldn’t come clean, and the air there from then on was tainted with the heavy, oily stench of anger he had never felt. It choked him every time he entered, like a black mold.

  
OBJECTIVE: DESTROY

He remembered he had hands. He remembered he had arms, and legs, yes, a body. He remembered how the young princess Zelda would poke at his various scars and knicks. He remembered how his mother treated them when he was a boy. He remembered how the walls of the shrine collapsed on him, and how the malice he had outpoured consumed him whole. He remembered how it burned his skin, his muscle and bone. He remembered how it threatened to seep into the very core of him. He remembered, faintly, the words of kindness from his mother. 

OBJECTIVE: DESTROY

The beast coiled. Swirling in place over what remained of a shrine, it roared, then hissed, then dispersed like bonfire smoke in the wind. Ganondorf Dragmire found himself alone, atop rubble, feeling quite sore.

OBJECTIVE:

Ganondorf knew exactly what would come next. Him, the royal family, their bright scientists, and magicians had planned it out for years now. Seeing his fate on the horizon, he couldn’t help but feel like a little boy again. Scared. Alone.

He stared at the maw of the crypt. His crypt. He felt the young princess’ hand shaking within his and told himself it was because she was afraid of the dark. He glanced back to a knight holding a sword that seemed to hate him. He looked, at best, uninterested. Ganondorf sighed, and steeled himself. This was his destiny, and he was prepared to meet it head-on. 

Zelda’s young light was less effective than her mother’s would have been, but she insisted to be the one to say goodbye to him. The king lost to time. After Zelda, bawling her eyes out, had left him paralyzed on the rock which he would call his bed, the King’s magicians filtered into the dimly lit chamber.

Ganondorf was promised a swift death, that his body would contain the curse. 

Death did not come. 

His body made quite the suitable container, though.

OBJECTIVE: ESCAPE

OBJECTIVE: SCREAM  
  
OBJECTIVE: MOVE  
  
OBJECTIVE: MOVE  
  
OBJECTIVE: DO ANYTHING

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OBJECTIVE: PLEASE

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OBJECTIVE: DESTROY

**Author's Note:**

> wahhh my first ao3 post... had a lot of help from my friend @bigskycastle on twitter for this one! go follow her for very good zelda and other art... this fic was partly inspired by her ganondorf design >_>
> 
> my twitter is @bastardgooey and my tumblr is @nickymemer if you're interested in following me there :D


End file.
